


carpool karaoke

by underthestars320



Category: Space Force (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, They are so in love, one part is kind of based off of pancakes for dinner by lizzy mcalpine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28625727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underthestars320/pseuds/underthestars320
Summary: Tony and Chan start carpooling to get to work
Relationships: Chan Kaifang/F. Tony Scarapiducci
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	carpool karaoke

One big downside of working in a top-secret government facility in the middle of nowhere is the commute. Not to mention, if you wanted to live somewhere affordable that wasn’t a mobile home parked outside of a gas station, you were going to have to look even farther away from the Space Force Headquarters. Dr. Kaifang Chan’s drive to work in the morning took a little over an hour, meaning he had to get up much earlier than any human should and get home much too late for his liking.

Tony Scarapiducci lived around the same area as Chan, having to commute the same distance, but having to wake up about 30 minutes earlier so he could fix his hair every morning and having to leave just a little bit later because he didn’t necessarily need to be at work on time. Tony was not a morning person, and if there was any traffic in Wild Horse, he would have gotten in way too many accidents from almost falling asleep at the wheel. In fact, he almost rear-ended Chan’s car on a morning where his coworker had been running a bit late, and Tony had coincidentally needed to get to work a bit earlier.

That’s when the carpooling idea came up. They lived in the same area, they worked at the same place, Tony hated driving in the mornings, and Chan hated driving after work; it was the perfect solution. Chan had joked about it, saying they should carpool because Tony was “a danger to himself and others” when he was driving in the early morning, and then suddenly they were driving to and from work together every day. Chan picked Tony up and drove them to work in the mornings (Tony slept for most of the ride), and Tony waited for Chan to finish work every night to drive him home. The first few car rides were a bit awkward, but after a while the two of them got more comfortable around each other. That was how Chan found himself sitting in the passenger seat of the car while Tony practically screamed Taylor Swift lyrics (and how he found himself singing along quietly).

Sing-alongs basically became part of their daily routine. They had to give Angela a ride once and she referred to it as “Carpool Karaoke from Hell.” She and Tony don’t really get along well (Chan says they have conflicting energies, Angela says he’s just an annoying bitch, who’s to say which is right), but Chan had started to enjoy Tony’s upbeat energy, especially after a boring work day. There were hardly any car rides that didn’t involve Tony’s loud singing.

*

One of these rare car rides was the day of Edison Jaymes’ visit to Space Force Headquarters. Tony and Chan had been driving home just like they did any other day, but both of them were completely silent while the music played. They were listening to a playlist of Katy Perry songs, and normally Tony would be singing along at the top of his lungs while Chan sang quietly or danced a bit, but he was silent. They both just stared at the road in front of them, with Chan tapping his foot nervously as Teenage Dream was playing.

I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece.

“I hate that line,” Tony said suddenly, getting only a confused look from Chan, “It’s about soulmates and all that, but your soulmate isn’t your missing puzzle piece, they help you find yours. They’re not supposed to make you better, they support you while you better yourself.”

“That was—That was super insightful, actually,” Chan wasn’t really sure how to respond to Tony’s comment, “Are you high or something? You really shouldn’t drive when you’re high, especially with someone else in the car.”

“Jesus, no, I’m not high,” Tony laughed a bit before staring blankly at the road again, “I’m just...very unlucky in love, and very opinionated when it comes to love songs.”

“Well, someday you’ll find someone who helps you finish your puzzle.”

“Thanks, I think.”

The rest of the car ride was quiet, but it was back to normal again the next day, and neither of them brought up the conversation again.

*

One of the only other times Tony didn’t sing along to the music on the way home was after a particularly stressful work day for Chan. As soon as he got into the car, he took Tony’s phone, which already had the aux cord plugged into it, and turned off the music, tossing it into the backseat of the car.

“Hey that’s my phone, what the hell are you doing?” Tony got no answer from Chan, who had just lifted a finger while he scribbled something in a notepad, “Okay Jesus Christ, at least put on a seatbelt before I start driving.”

Chan flipped him off and put on his seatbelt before immediately going back to his work. Tony knew better than to interrupt him, so he kept driving in silence. While Chan was keeping himself occupied with his work, Tony was getting increasingly bored, even though he was technically supposed to be occupied with driving. Every once in a while he’d look over at Chan, who was talking to himself under his breath and flipping through the pages of his notepad constantly. Sometimes he would reread the things he’d written on the pages, tapping his pen and furrowing his eyebrows a bit before crossing things out and writing over them. At one point Tony almost drove off the road because he had been staring at him for so long, but Chan was too immersed in his work to notice that Tony had to swerve back onto the right side of the road.

Tony spent the rest of the car ride keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead, and mentally berating himself for almost crashing the car because he was staring at Chan, though he hadn’t fully processed why he had been staring at him.

“Did you figure it out?” Tony asked when he was getting out of the car.

“Huh?” Chan was switching to the driver’s seat because they had taken his car that day.

“The thing you were working on in the car.”

“Oh, not quite,” he rubbed the back of his neck a bit and shrugged before opening the door to his car to get in, “See you tomorrow, Tony.”

Tony didn’t go inside right then, instead he stood in the same spot, watching the car disappear into the night. He didn’t know why, but he wanted Chan to come back. It was a confusing realization, especially when you’re standing out in the cold in the middle of the street at 8 pm. He didn’t fully know it, but that was the day that Tony fell in love with Chan.

*

The only other quiet car rides were in the morning, when Tony was usually sleeping in a position that’s about as comfortable as you would expect in a car. Unlike Tony, Chan didn’t really get bored not having anyone to talk to while he was driving, but he occasionally had the same issues with keeping his eyes on the road.

Most people sleep in very unflattering positions, but Chan was convinced that it was impossible for Tony to not look cute while he was sleeping (a totally normal platonic thought to have about your coworker). Every time Chan looked over, Tony had moved slightly, like switching from having his head resting on the seatbelt to having his face fully pressed against the window, with his breath fogging up the glass a bit. Somehow, his hair never got messed up, aside from a few curls occasionally falling loose from the rest, which Tony always fixed as soon as he woke up. If Chan wasn’t driving, he would definitely reach over to fix it himself, and that thought was becoming increasingly concerning to him.

There was one time where Tony had slouched forward while he was asleep, hitting his head on the passenger side dashboard and immediately jolting awake. Chan laughed at him, and even more so when he began asking if his head was bleeding and desperately trying to get Chan to pull over to check if he had a concussion.

“I’m not a medical doctor, Tony.”

“You have the ‘doctor’ title, it’s the same difference!”

“Well in that case,” Chan looked over at him for barely a second before looking back at the road, “Nope, no concussion.”

“You didn’t even check!”

“Of course I did, are you questioning my medical knowledge?”

“You literally just said that you aren’t a medical doctor.”

“And you literally just said that it’s the ‘same difference.’”

“I hate you. I really do.”

Chan laughed again and kept driving, ignoring how Tony kept mumbling to himself about being concussed. He didn’t want to think about how adorable it was that Tony was so worried, and he definitely didn’t want to look over at him while he checked for any sign of blood or bruising on his forehead, because that would only make it harder to not think about. He didn’t want to think about it, but he knew that he was in love with Tony.

*

As someone who was fairly open about his emotions, Tony had a harder time dealing with his feelings for Chan. For one thing, he couldn’t keep a secret for shit, so he was having trouble keeping his mouth shut about it when they were together, but he also didn’t really have anyone that he could talk to about it because Chan had become the person he went to with his problems. Needless to say, it was becoming a bit of an issue.Tony had gotten so frustrated with all his pent up emotions that he jumped at the first opportunity to talk about it. That opportunity, though, came when Chan fell asleep on their way back from work.

They had stayed at work longer than usual and the whole day had been pretty stressful, so everyone was exhausted by the time they left. Tony waited for Chan to be done in the lab, and when they got in the car he decided to just turn on quiet music (his parents kept buying him CDs of classical music for some reason so he had a lot). About 10 minutes into the drive, Chan was drifting off into sleep, and Tony was losing his mind in the silence.

“You’re asleep right?” Chan didn’t respond, so Tony shrugged and kept going, “So this is going to sound really dumb, which you don’t care about really since you’re asleep. Anyways, I don’t want to be too forward or make you uncomfortable, but I’m dying not being able to tell you,” he paused, unsure exactly how to say what he wanted to, “I don’t really know how to say it, and even thinking about it is terrifying, you know? I just—I don’t know—I want to be with you all the time, and I want to watch TV with you, and I want you to think about me as much as I think about you because I think about you all the time. And maybe you do, but everyone sort of thinks that you and Angela are a thing. If you are then that’s awesome for you, and I won’t burden you with all of this, but if I were to crash this car and die right now I’d want to at least have this out there. That made no sense, but who cares, I love you.”

Tony let out a breath and glanced over at Chan, who hadn’t moved since he had fallen asleep. He wasn’t really sure why—because the idea of actually saying any of that to another fully conscious human being was terrifying—but part of him wished that Chan had been awake to hear all of it. But it was too late, so he just went back to staring at the road and trying to listen intently to the classical music even though it all sounded the exact same.

There weren’t a lot of things at this point that Tony and Chan didn’t know about each other, especially after all their long car rides together. Unfortunately for Tony, one of those few things he didn’t know about his friend, was that Chan is a very light sleeper and had woken up pretty much as soon as he heard talking.

*

What do I do? Holy shit, what do I do? Chan’s mind was spinning as he got out of the car and walked up towards his door. He woke up to the sound of Tony talking, but as soon as what he heard had fully registered in his mind, he panicked and pretended to still be asleep. He stayed like that for almost the entire car ride, left alone with his thoughts while Tony was driving. He was fumbling around with his keys and was about to unlock his door when he stopped.

“Oh my god, I need to go back.”

Chan turned around and ran back to the car. He had been in love with Tony for months, and apparently Tony had been in love with him too, but instead of doing anything about it he just pretended to be asleep. Not the smartest move on his part, to be perfectly honest. So, he started driving. It wouldn’t take too long to get back to where Tony lives, but it felt like he was in the car for ages. He had to wait for a minute when he was already parked, just tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and breathing, unsure of whether he could actually do what he was about to. As soon as he realized he wasn’t going to talk himself out of it, he got out of the car and walked towards the building.

“Dude, what are you doing here it’s like 10?” Tony (who was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants that were very different from his usual attire) opened his door to see Chan standing there, staring blankly at him, “Hey, Chan, are you okay? Seriously, what’s wrong? Do you need to come inside or—”

“I love you too.”

*

About 2 years later, Tony sat in the living room of their home, working on a puzzle that was sitting on the coffee table. They had been living together for about a year and a half, and they both told people all the time that they were the happiest they’d ever been. Pretty much every room of their apartment was filled with various houseplants (Tony just kept buying them for Chan) and the walls were covered with movie posters and framed pictures of the two of them together or with friends.

“Chan, can you come in here? I think I lost one of the pieces.”

“Maybe it was already missing a piece,” Chan walked in from the kitchen holding a coffee mug and stood next to where Tony was seated on the floor, looking down at the puzzle.

“It’s a brand new puzzle, there’s no way it’s just ‘missing.’”

Chan set down his mug and walked around to the other side of the table, crouching down to look under one of the chairs, “Here it is,” he said, holding up a small piece and placing it in the last empty spot on the puzzle.

Tony stood up, looking down at the puzzle for a moment before looking back at Chan. All of a sudden, his words from years before were ringing in his ears.

“Your soulmate isn’t your missing puzzle piece, they help you find yours.”

“Marry me,” he said. He was barely thinking about it, but he still knew exactly what he was doing.

“Excuse me?”

“I said, ‘Marry me,” Tony turned to face his boyfriend, “Will you marry me?”

“It’s 11 in the morning, I just crawled around on the floor trying to find a puzzle piece, and you’re asking me to marry you?” Chan picked up his coffee, “Do you even know how proposals work?”

Tony rolled his eyes and walked over to a bookshelf, moving a few things around and pulling out a small box, “I’ve been keeping this here for weeks, I just didn’t know when would be the right time,” he got down on one knee, opening the box and looking up at Chan, “Since apparently you care so much about how I propose to you: Kaifang Chan, my wonderful boyfriend, love of my life, et cetera, et cetera, will you marry me?”

“Of course I will, you idiot.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you sm for reading my first fic!! you should follow me on twitter @/trxymiller :) love ya


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